AWeb3VC - Funding Round Up #24

🗓️ Week of: June 11-17, 2023

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💡 Web3 Funding Snapshot

(See "Funding Rounds" section for the complete list of deals)

$132M+ was raised across 20 funding rounds in Web3. Once again, funding appears to be in a slump. Recent developments from the SEC in the U.S. seem to be creating a temporary cloud over the industry as investors deploy capital cautiously, and projects postpone their funding rounds until the news cycle passes. However, Web3's AI narrative is gaining traction with Gensyn's $43M Series A funding (the largest round of the week), and infrastructure projects continue to attract investment. Additionally, with BlackRock's announced plans for a Bitcoin ETF, there remain reasons to be optimistic about the industry, despite the regulatory headwinds.

🏆 Largest Funding Round

➡️ Gensyn raised $43M in Series A funding led by a16z. Other investors in the round included CoinFund, Canonical Crypto, Protocol Labs, Eden Block, Maven 11 Capital, and a variety of other AI and crypto venture capitalists and angels.

Gensyn Protocol is a decentralized protocol designed to facilitate machine learning computation without the need for centralized oversight. It operates by rewarding participants for committing their computing power to perform machine learning tasks. At its core, it seeks to solve the challenge of verifying completed machine learning work. To tackle this, Gensyn Protocol uses a combination of probabilistic proof-of-learning, a graph-based pinpoint protocol, and a incentive game, encompassing key participants: Submitters, Solvers, Verifiers, and Whistleblowers. The protocol leverages smart contracts to manage task distribution and payments, effectively creating a decentralized marketplace for machine learning computation.

Why this matters?👉Gensyn exemplifies the promising convergence of AI and Web3. At the heart of most blockchain networks lies decentralized computation. It's therefore logical that, beyond processing a medium of exchange, blockchains and their consensus mechanisms can also be employed for other purposes, such as verifying completed machine learning tasks. Gensyn's timing is impeccable, given the potential for the protocol to meet the computational demands driving the generative AI revolution. The recent eight-digit funding round is unsurprising at this stage of the market given the AI association. With Worldcoin and now Gensysn, Web3 projects with an AI angle are certainly capturing the venture dollars.

😎 Noteworthy Company

➡️ ResearchHub ResearchHub is a platform designed to accelerate scientific discovery by incentivizing community collaboration. The platform combines elements from social media, research publication repositories, and forums, creating a space for researchers to connect, share their work, discuss new developments, and collaborate (similar to what GitHub has done for software engineering).

One of the defining features of ResearchHub is its incentive system. Users are rewarded with RSC (Research Coin) tokens for contributing to the platform, whether that's through posting papers, engaging in discussions, or reviewing and summarizing other's work. These tokens can be spent within the platform, encouraging further community engagement and collaboration.

The company was founded in 2020 by Patrick Joyce and Coinbase’s founder, Brian Armstrong. Recently ResearchHub raised $5M in funding led by Open Source Software (OSS) Capital with participation from Boost VC and other notable angel investors.

Why this matters?👉ResearchHub is an excellent example of how Web3 dynamics can foster societal advancement. The platform has seen modest activity since its launch in 2020, set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, what piqued my interest is Brian Armstrong's involvement. In 2022, Armstrong announced his intentions to sell a 2% stake in Coinbase to fund scientific research and companies. Therefore, it intrigued me to see some of that capital being funneled back into Web3, and into a project employing tokenization in a compelling use-case.

👀 Observations, Trends & Themes

➡️ BlackRock’s BTC ETF

Capturing headlines last week, BlackRock, through its iShares unit, filed for the creation of a spot Bitcoin ETF named the iShares Bitcoin Trust. The timing is notable, considering the U.S. SEC's current scrutiny of the industry and the numerous rejections of other Bitcoin spot ETFs. However, given BlackRock's stature as the world's largest asset manager, this application may follow a different trajectory. If successful, it could also signal a wave of deeper involvement from TradeFi in crypto. Either way, this development has brought a welcome respite to crypto.

💸 Funding Rounds

Top 15 Rounds

Note: Maverick Protocol formal announcement is still pending, although other sources have reported on the deal and has thus been included for this week

Want access to our complete dataset or propose an update? Contact: [email protected]

All Rounds

StrikeX - Strategic (Not Disclosed) | Ecosystem for cryptocurrencies and digital asset tokenizations: https://strikex.com/

Gensyn - Series A ($43M) | Machine learning compute protocol and decentralized network for training AI models backed by cryptographic verifications: https://www.gensyn.ai/

Maverick Protocol - Private Sale ($9M) | Infrastructure for decentralized finance powered by a Dynamic Distribution Automated Market Maker (AMM): https://www.mav.xyz/

Ironforge - Seed ($2.6M) | Serverless development platform for the Solana ecosystem: https://www.ironforge.cloud/

LightingWorks - Seed ($2.5M) | Digital comic book publisher enabled by NFTs and Web3 gaming: https://lightningworks.io/

GameOn - Strategic ($1.7M) | Software developer of NFT-based games, predictive gaming, and fantasy products: https://gameon.app/

BoomFi - Seed ($3.8M) | All-in-one solution to send, accept and convert multi-chain crypto payments: https://www.boomfi.xyz/

Collectibles.com - Seed ($5M) | Web3 community and marketplace for collectors: https://www.collectibles.com/

Nebeus - Seed+ ($1.3M) | Financial services app and lending platform for crypto hodlers licensed in Spain: https://nebeus.com/

Cheelee - Private Sale ($10M) | GameFi social media platform that rewards regular users for viewing videos: https://cheelee.io/

Tax Nodes - Seed ($1.6M) | Crypto tax and accounting software assisting compliance and reporting in India: https://www.taxnodes.com/

Connext - Series A+ ($7.5M) | Cross-chain interoperability and communication protocol aiming to build the “HTTP of Web3”: https://www.connext.network/

Mnemonic - Seed+ ($6M) | NFT data, analytics, and intelligence platform: https://www.mnemonichq.com/

Bit2Me - Strategic ($15M) | Cryptocurrency exchange based in Spain: https://bit2me.com/

Poko - Seed ($4.5M) | Payment solution for Web3 businesses, featuring fiat onramp aggregator, direct checkout, and payouts: https://www.pokoapp.xyz/

ResearchHub - Seed ($5M) | Tokenized social network that rewards scientists for openly sharing scholarly content: https://www.researchhub.com/

Intuition - Seed ($4M) | Developer of decentralized knowledge graph protocol enhancing the quality and availability of social knowledge: https://intuition.systems/

Sparkle - Seed (Not Disclosed) | Gamified astrology social app with curated Web3 features: https://www.sparkle.fun/

Concordia - Seed ($4M) | Modular risk and collateral management protocol that unifies and enables multi-chain collateralization of digital assets: https://www.concordia.systems/

TapiocaDAO - Private Sale ($6M) | Omnichain money market enabling borrowing and lending enabled by LayerZero: https://www.tapioca.xyz/

New Funds

No new funds this week.

🙌 Cool Resources

🐕 About

AWeb3VC is a source for venture funding news, emerging startups and trends across Web3. I've been closely following cryptocurrencies and digital assets since 2013 and started working in space since 2018. Now I'm on a mission to build the most extensive venture ecosystem for BUIDLERS in Web3, starting first by tracking those BUIDLERS.in